Here's how newspapers can use Google News to their advantage.
Some newspapers were bellyaching about how Google News, which displays a story's headline and it's lede, kinda steals content from them and, more importantly to the newspaper, gives readers enough information so that they don't click through to the newspaper's website and thus don't feed them ad revenue.
But Google News could be the newspaper's best friend. Readers who didn't know that a given newspaper ever existed can be exposed to it just by scanning Google News. The newspaper just has to reorganize the information in its stories. Online newspapers who want readers of Google News to click through to the their site should not put the most important information in the lede anymore. Just hint at it so readers have to click through to get the information they want.
Here's an example: The lede to a Houston Chronicle story about the hike in 30-year mortgage rates just said that there was a hike and that the hike was the sharpest its been in I can't remember how many years. But I wanted to know exactly how much the rate increased, so I had to click through to the Houston Chronicle's website. So they've made a few cents off of me when they wouldn't have before because I never think to read that paper.
2 comments:
What flavor Kool-aid are they serving in that cafeteria? ;-)
I officially don't know what you're talking about. :)
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